To The Future Leaders: It’s Your Move To Position Yourself For Success

Leadership Lesson: Your definition of success should begin by determining where you need to position yourself in your various environments to have your value realized and tapped into.

In this previous post, I introduced this current series which covers a top-ten list of ideas I had provided to students at Quest 2017, a one-day summit hosted at Southern Connecticut State University by Connecticut’s Chapter of Prospanica, in partnership with its community and corporate partners. The annual event is filled with motivational presentations, speakers, and workshops providing students with tools for the next chapter in their lives.

The list is made up of tips students should consider as they continue on in their life, work, and careers and is made up of some of the top items on The Self 60.

While the items on The Self 60 tend to be more specific, these items allow for the lesson to be broadened and more encompassing.

In each post I provide general information about the item and a breakdown of what it is, why it’s important, where to get it, and why the item made this top-ten list.

In this post, the item I’ll be breaking down is…

Position Yourself For Your Success

General Info / What it is…

This idea stresses the need to keep pushing yourself toward your success, by positioning yourself strategically with each step forward.

Working toward success is a two-prong approach: pushing forward and letting go of what’s pulling at us.

In order to mobilize our push forward, we have to work on what’s holding us back. We have to shift our mindset toward dealing with fear and doubt, not outrunning or suppressing each, in order to overcome common hurdles and obstacles and reach our desired reward. Just because we look away from what holds us back doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its hands on us, claws dug in deep, pulling us down and back.

We need to begin making our own luck, increasing our chances and opportunities for advancement, by positioning ourselves in the right environments, around the right people, demonstrating our worth and outworking the next person.

We each have more control than we give ourselves credit for — and more of it than we know.

Why it’s important…

Overall, success needs to be achieved and fought for. Fought for. We have to fight the natural urge to give up on a goal if it is too lofty or if it is too time- or energy-consuming.

The work to get to success looks much different than the final success itself. We always tend to see the end result of successes around us – the success itself. But we rarely see or visualize the hard work, in the majority of cases, that goes into achieving that level of success — the up’s and down’s, the wins and losses, and “failures” along the way.

In order to get to our success, we need to understand what it truly takes to reach it. It’s not easy, but if we’re working toward our right goal, the one that matches our heart, drive, and desire, we can overcome the hardships to get to that light at the end of the tunnel.

Where to get it…

We get this understanding by realizing it, by talking about it, and putting it into play. We live this understanding by finding people with a similar drive to ours. They don’t need to have an identical plan to ours but instead an identical drive and a desire for better, which makes for a better partner.

Rarely can we go it alone. If you look at most of your ideal success stories, it’s safe to say there were probably partners in that story — mentors, guides, advisers, friends, families, educators — all who provided support, knowledge, and information along the way.

Why it’s a Top 10 off The Self 60…

We need to understand what goes into being a success. We need to understand the kind of work it takes. We can have a plan and resources, but if we don’t position ourselves for success, grinding out the work to put that plan and those resources to work, it can all be for nothing.

Most items on The Self 60 can’t happen effectively if we don’t have the drive to reach the success that is within our sights, even if it is out of our reach (at the moment).

We need to be proactive about who we want to be, what kind of leader we want to be, and what we need to do to accomplish what it is we want.

Nothing can happen without the drive to know what it is we want to do – and follow through. We cannot be passive in our life and work if we want to achieve anything. We cannot wait for the life we want to come to us. That’s pure luck. We have to work toward it and make our own luck.

True, some may have an inordinate amount of luck, while the rest of us don’t and have to work at it.

But, regardless, WE need to understand what WE need to do, adjust when necessary, and get to work.

What examples have you seen of a temperamental, emotional #leader delivering great results?
If you did witness such a case, how was it the environment actually came to be successful?
#leadership#organization#boss#manager

Leadership Lesson: There can be no growth or development forward if you’re tolerating too much, unwisely using your precious resources, including energy and reputation, to hold things together or keep appearances.
#leadership#coaching#relationshipsow.ly/YwgW30pnARA

Some quotes can speak to us directly. If there are none that have spoken to you, or driven you to push forward, what advice received in your own experience has motivated you to push forward with everything you have?
#motivation#drive#success#coachingow.ly/lSp030mzXov

@VPsalesBD@AdamMGrant@seanmlandry It's important to define 1:1. They don't necessarily lead to micromanagement. The best ones I've seen are more, "What are you up to? What do you need? What's your plan going forward? Ok, after all that, here's what I can suggest. Let me know what you need before our next 1:1."

My top tip: Before you declare a major, go interview 5 people in the field you'd like to enter after graduation. The industry landscape will shift, but try to get a sense of what awaits you -- the good and the bad.
#college#careers#development#lifeow.ly/csLo30plqA5

Leadership Lesson: We need to understand what it is that keeps us repeating those behaviors, habits, and practices that keep us from our best development and goals.
Is it Fear? Complacency? Distraction? Tradition?
#fear#legacy#development#leadershipow.ly/ccRg50vnrgy

There IS a huge difference between shyness and introversion.
Most times, understanding the root of how you approach life, work, projects, and people, helps you work to harness it, refine it, to make it work for you.
#introversion#shyness#developmentow.ly/d7zC30kP0nv

What do you think? What have you seen? How much have you demonstrated when you've interviewed? Where is that sweet spot between This is who I am and This is what I can do for you?
Resume alone is not enough.
#interview#hiring#coaching#successow.ly/FrGi30pfvn9